Liturgies in Honour of Thomas Becket

A.J. Pell is editor of the Canadian Evangelical Review and an instructor
of Liturgy, Anglican Studies Program, Regent College, Vancouver.

Someone picking up this book in expectation of finding a large number of
the medieval liturgies for St. Thomas will discover it to be both less
and far more than anticipated. Almost 200 pages are devoted to only two
such liturgies, each preceded by a short commentary. The first liturgy
is the “Office for the Feast Day of St. Thomas Becket, celebrated 29
December.” It is from the Breviary/Missal of the Cluniac priory of St.
Pancras, Lewes, Sussex, preserved at the Fitzwilliam Museum as MS 369.
The second liturgy is the “Office for the Translation of St. Thomas,
celebrated on 7 July” as found in the Norwich Breviary (British
Library, Stowe 12 manuscript). In both cases Kay Slucum has provided the
music settings (from British Library Add. 28598) and her own
translations into English of each section of the liturgies.

But this is far more than the reproduction of medieval liturgies, and
that comes as a result of the opening third of the book. There the
author gives a very thorough and highly readable biography of Becket
that, while chronological, lays out the successive stages of his adult
life in terms of the five themes found in biographies by his
contemporaries and in the liturgies themselves. Becket is presented as
“the old man,” during his career as royal chancellor, and then as
“the new man,” being ordained and during his early career as
Archbishop of Canterbury. Next comes Becket as exile, as martyr, and as
provider of miracles. This is where the value of this book becomes
apparent, as Slocum shows how historical accounts of Becket’s career
and spiritual development have been carefully woven into the liturgies
to allow worshippers to learn from his life. The powerful learn that the
secular authorities are no match for spiritual power. Ordinary folk
learn that faith is meant to inspire and direct one’s life. For
contemporary readers, it is this portion of the book that gives the
liturgies the life and power intended by their creators.